The process of converting the digital signal sent by the computer into an analog signal, so you can hear sound on your speakers – for example, when you play an MP3 file or when you play a video file – is called digital-to-analog conversion or DAC for short. This component is very important as it defines the audio quality of a sound card, and we will talk a lot more about it later. On motherboards there is a chip called codec (short for coder/decoder) that is in charge of converting digital audio signals into analog and vice-versa. Speakers are expecting an analog signal so they can reproduce sounds you can’t feed speakers with a digital signal – the so called “digital speakers” are in fact analog speakers with a digital-to-analog (DAC) converter converting the digital signal sent by the computer into analog signal. The problem, however, is that in the real world audio is an analog entity.

Computers are digital systems so they can only produce and manipulate audio in digital format. This option is used only because some high-end motherboards have already so many connectors on the rear panel of the motherboard that the audio connectors don’t fit there, and using an add-on card solves this problem, as the connectors will now be available at one of the slots of the computer case.Īudio can be available in two different formats: analog or digital. Some very high-end motherboards don’t come with the audio section on the motherboard, but in add-on card that comes with the product, being installed on a PCI Express x1 slot or on a special connector on the motherboard. In this tutorial we will explain how the on-board audio is produced, allowing you to understand what a codec is and what its importance to the audio quality is.

Today all motherboards have an embedded sound card (this feature goes by several different names, like on-board audio, on-board sound, integrated audio or integrated sound).

Separate front and rear audio jacks